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Net activism to combat gender violence

Jakarta Post - November 25, 2015

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Hans Nicholas Jong, National – In commemoration of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on Nov. 25, the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) is launching on Wednesday a 16-day campaign, including activities on social media.

This year's campaign is focusing on eradicating violence against women as the number of cases reported to the commission keep increasing every year. "Sexual violence is a crime against humanity," Komnas Perempuan chairwoman Azriana said on Tuesday.

"The number of cases increases every year but this is due to an increase in victim reporting. We all know that the number of reported cases is only the tip of the iceberg," said Azriana.

There were 293,220 cases of violence against women reported to the commission in 2014, up from 279,688 in 2013 and 216,156 in 2012. Of those figures, around 25 percent were sexual violence.

During the campaign, the commission will work together with various related organizations to raise public awareness through talkshows, public dialogue, movie screenings and so on.

This year's campaign also aims to raise Rp 160 million (US$11,683) in funds to support Women Crisis Centers (WCC) through crowdfunding site kitabisa.com.

"There are lots of WCC that operate for free. They don't get any funding from the government. This year, we will try a different crowdfunding approach by involving the public even more. Therefore, we are working together with kitabisa.com," Indonesia for Humanity (IKA) program officer Virlian Nurkristi, who is in charge of the crowdfunding campaign, said on Tuesday.

She said that the crowdfunding campaign would use the hashtag #SaveOurSisters in order to try create an online social movement.

"We have gathered 50 volunteers to become fundraisers. During the next 16 days, these volunteers will become pioneers in campaigning for SaveOurSisters through the hashtag and encourage more people to donate," Virlian said.

According to Azriana, WCCs are crucial as most victims of sexual violence are reluctant to report incidents to the police.

"Sexual violence cases are seldom reported to law enforcement agencies because both the victims and their guardians know that they won't find justice there. Instead, they will be publicly exposed while the cases go nowhere due to lack of evidence," she said.

The lack of law enforcement in sexual violence against women was a result of the absence of a lex specialis to protect women from sexual violence, said Azriana.

While Indonesia already had a law on domestic violence and a law on child protection, they were not enough to protect women against sexual violence, she added.

"The law on domestic violence acknowledges sexual violence, but it can only be used for sexual violence inside a marriage, it cannot be used for incidents outside of marriages. Furthermore, while the law on child protection also includes sexual violence, it can only protect girls under the age of 18. But sexual violence doesn't only happen in those groups. What about adult women who fall victim to assault? Which regulations should they seek protection under?" Azriana said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/11/25/net-activism-combat-gender-violence.html.